mediation@mit Provides Informal Arbitration

Students have a new option for resolving their disputes -- mediation@mit
-- which is both unofficial and confidential.

Mediation works on the "basic assumption that people are good and that
people want to work out their own problems in good faith," said student
mediator Albert L. Hsu '96.

The conflicting parties settle their own differences, with the help of a
pair of mediators. The process is purely voluntary, and "any party can
leave at any time for any reason," said mediator Mary P. Rowe, special
assistant to the president.

Unlike formal grievance procedures, no records of the dispute are kept.
The parties work out a mutual agreement, put it in writing, and enforce the
solution themselves.

Mediation may be particularly useful for some cases of injury by means
of speech, which can be resolved without formal mediation, Rowe said.

However, some disputes should not be mediated. "Cases of a criminal
nature should be taken to a more formal level," said mediator Eckart W.
Jansen G.

"By trying mediation, students do not lose any other options they may
have. They may at any point opt to follow other routes, seek other forums,
to process complaints," said Co-coordinator Carol Orme-Johnson. "Formal
mediation through mediation@mit is designed to compliment, not replace, the
informal mediation that goes on all the time on campus, through friends or
graduate resident tutors or faculty intervening to help resolve disputes
around them."

"It's nice to have peers work with peers with conflicts," added Susan
Allen.

A system still in progress

Mediation@mit has been in the works for the past two years. The
organizers wanted to "keep alive the idea that ... you can resolve disputes
at the lowest level" before bringing the case to Committee on Discipline or
deans, said Mary E. Ni, mediator and Assistant Dean of Residence and Campus
Activities.

The program developed as part of the harassment policies and procedures
outlined in Dealing with Harassment at MIT. The Guide has
evolved over the past 20 years; "it's a system still in progress," Rowe
said.

According to Orme-Johnson, this program was modeled after the one at the
University of Massachusetts-Amherst, one of the oldest in the country. It
features two person mediation teams to follow a particular model, with the
two people representing different races, religions, and gender.

There are 27 trained mediators in the program, with 19 who completed
their training over IAP, according to Orme-Johnson. Members include staff,
undergraduate and graduate students.

"Mediation training teaches a variety of skills, the most important of
which are listening skills," Jansen said. "We spent a lot of time listening
to one another and learning about ourselves. ... Through acting each of the
different roles in the mediation process (party, mediator, and observer) I
gained valuable insight at every angle."

The IAP class "focused on problem solving instead of deciding who's
right and wrong," Hsu said.

"I think this is one of the best things that's happened to MIT in a long
time," Ni said. There is the potential to do good and allow people to learn
from the process, she said.

Rowe added that mediation is a good way to stretch one's working comfort
zones, "to be able to mediate a really tense situation ... with a peer ...
is one of the best ways to educate oneself" about how to interact in
society.

"Negotiation is a basic skill that you have to use all the time," Hsu
said.